Micron hopes for better times ahead

Micron (Boise, Idaho) reported sales of $1.96 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, down 10 percent from the previous quarter and down 8 percent from the year-ago quarter. The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $243 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, narrowed compared with a net loss of $320 million in the previous quarter, but wider that the net loss of $135 million reported in the year-ago quarter, Micron said.

Micron's sales for the quarter came up short of consensus analysts' expectations, which called for the company to report revenue of about $2.12 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

Durcan cautioned that Micron's sequential comparisons were impacted by significant inventory reduction for both DRAM and NAND that occurred in the fiscal third quarter.

Micron said NAND revenue declined 12 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter on an 11 percent decrease in sales volume. The decrease in volume was primarily due to a one-time increase in volume from the restructuring of Micron's IM Flash joint venture with Intel Corp., the company said.
DRAM revenue declined 9 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter on a 9 percent increase in sales volume, Micron said.

Micron reported a consolidated gross margin of 11 percent for the fiscal fourth quarter, essentially flat with the third quarter. Improvements in margin from sales of NAND and NOR flash were offset by declines in margins from DRAM sales, Micron said.

For the fiscal year 2012, which also closed Aug. 30, Micron reported sales of $8.23 billion, down 6 percent compared with fiscal 2011. Micron reported a net loss for the fiscal year of $1.03 billion, or $1.04 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $167 million in fiscal 2011.